By Denis Carmel
OTTAWA – In another session of the pre-study of Bill C-11 today, the Senate Transport and Communications Committee heard from some of the web giants and their issues with the Online Streaming Act seemed a little clearer.
Representatives from Spotify, The Walt Disney Company and the Digital Media Association (DiMA), which represents the interests of Amazon, Apple, Google, Pandora, Spotify and YouTube, made presentations and answered questions from the senators.
Three issues were underlined: discoverability, CanCon and, in a related fashion but more subtly, IP rights.
Don’t touch my algorithms!
While DiMA president and CEO Garrett Levin recognized the act does not…
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By Denis Carmel
OTTAWA – In a tweet yesterday, the Federal Court of Appeal (FCA) announced it would grant leave to the CBC/Radio-Canada (SRC) allowing it to appeal the CRTC’s decision, issued in June, to force the SRC to apologize to a complainant (Ricardo Lamour) for the use of the N-word on air and to outline the measures it will take to avoid such incidents in the future.
Back in August 2020, a SRC commentator on the radio program Le 15-18 used the offensive word four times during the show in reference to a book by Pierre Vallières written…
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TORONTO — Canadian Telecom Summit (CTS) organizers confirmed today CRTC chair and CEO Ian Scott (above) will speak at this year’s conference, being held Nov. 21-23 at the International Centre in Mississauga, Ont., just west of Toronto.
This will be one of Scott’s last public appearances as head of the CRTC. His five-year term, which was supposed to expire at the beginning of September, was recently extended by four months.
Scott is scheduled to give a keynote speech at CTS on Monday, Nov. 21 at 4:15 p.m. ET.
“As Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer, Ian Scott supervises and directs the work…
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Says it’s an opportunity for government to support competition and consumer choice
OTTAWA – The Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) is supporting City Wide’s petition to the Governor in Council, which asks it to vary the CRTC’s decision to deny City Wide’s 2020 application regarding Eastlink’s third-party Internet access (TPIA) point of interconnection (POI) in Nova Scotia.
City Wide wants the CRTC to order Eastlink to move its TPIA POI from the rural community of Pennant Point to a location in the core of Halifax, or alternatively, for the CRTC to regulate the rate the company charges for its…
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TALLCREE TRIBAL GOVERNMENT, Alberta — Telus Communications and Tallcree Tribal Government in Alberta announced earlier this month funding from the CRTC’s Broadband Fund will help to bring wireless connectivity to Tallcree First Nation in northern Alberta for the first time.
“With a wireless connection, small businesses can thrive and compete both locally and globally, families can stay connected to loved ones who live out of town, young people can stay in their hometowns longer and participate in distance education, and perhaps most critically, a wireless connection provides a lifeline to call for help in the event of an emergency,” reads…
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OTTAWA – Telus has told the CRTC this week that Timeless Inc.’s complaint that Rogers’s refusal to carry its OneSoccer channel gives it an undue preference should be investigated by the regulator as “timely,” as Rogers pushes to buy Shaw Communications.
Rogers has refused to carry the channel because it said it has limited appeal with its viewers. Timeless, which said it has been trying to get a carriage agreement with Rogers for over a year, has argued in its original complaint last month that there is a “surge in popularity and success for Canadian soccer” and that Rogers…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC said in a letter Friday that it is giving Bell and Videotron until the end of the month to report back on progress in negotiations involving Bell French-language channels that Videotron wants to axe from its rotation — while also moving up dates for intervenors to file comments in the matter.
Bell initially filed a Part 1 application on August 11 asking for the regulator to make a decision on allegations that Videotron is giving itself an undue preference by allowing its own competing channels to stay on while proposing to remove Bell’s Vrak.tv and Z….
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OTTAWA — Ian Scott, the chairman of the CRTC whose five-year term was set to expire this weekend, will stay on as head of the regulator for another four months, a government source confirmed to Cartt.ca.
The extension is intended to allow the Heritage Department to continue its search — which began in May — for a permanent replacement, a process that is still ongoing, the source said.
It will also allow the regulator to maintain some status quo as it deals with a number of big files, including work emanating from bills intended to modernize the CRTC, such as developing…
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OTTAWA – Bell is asking the CRTC to review its May decision that dismissed its complaint that certain Videotron customers were permanently roaming on its wireless network in violation of the parties’ agreement.
The August 19 review and vary request, published Friday, said that the CRTC erred when it dismissed the request to force Videotron to abide by Bell’s wholesale national wireless roaming service tariff – which Bell said dictates that Videotron customers roaming on its network cannot permanently do so on a non-incidental basis.
“The Commission dismissed our application in the face of our un-contradicted evidence, conceded by Videotron, that…
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Telecom unable to answer MP’s question about economic losses
OTTAWA – Rogers Communications has provided more information to the CRTC about its recent nationwide outage, including that roughly 60% of its average daily volume of 9-1-1 calls were successfully completed by its wireless customers on July 8.
Responding to a second round of questions from the Commission on Aug. 22, Rogers explained why some 9-1-1 calls went through while others did not.
“In cases where customers were not able to successfully complete their 9-1-1 calls through the Rogers wireless networks, their devices should have attempted, as per standard industry specifications, to scan…
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